Living space spring cleaning checklist

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This is an easy spring cleaning checklist that will help you spring clean your living spaces quickly and easily.

Easy living space spring cleaning checklist

This spring clean your living spaces checklist is part of our 1 Day Spring Cleaning Checklist, which is the ultimate checklist for deep cleaning your home in no more than one day’s worth of time.

This checklist covers chores for deep cleaning the living room, family room, den and dining room.

Plus any other living spaces you might have.

Living spaces spring cleaning checklist

Top tip: Save the vacuuming until almost last – just ahead of cleaning and polishing any wooden / laminate floors. This way you pick up anything dislodged by cleaning, dusting and polishing.

Oh and always start with an empty vacuum cleaner.

Give it a wipe over if you have time too. If you have lots of time add a few drops of lavender oil to the filter, to freshen as you vacuum.

Wipe down all painted wood

Wipe down baseboards, banisters, trims, doors, sills, window frames & furniture with water and washing up liquid or a dusting spray.

If you get them really clean it’s easy to keep them clean with very light dusting, but once they’re even a little bit “sticky” – yuk! – dusting is hopeless.

Spot clean walls and ceilings

Wipe down any mucky spots on the walls. Get down to child height to find some of the major culprits.

Touch up with paint.

Use an extendable microfibre duster with a bendable head if you want to avoid going up a ladder.

Clean windows, mirrors and paintings

Dust thoroughly first – you don’t just want to wipe the dust around – and then clean off any mucky marks with your preferred glass cleaning spray.

Dust and polish shelves, electronics, books and ornaments

Pull everything out so you can dust really thoroughly and then wipe everything down including the TV screen.

This is a great opportunity to donate some you’re never going to read again to a charity shop.

Get a step ladder out so you can actually see what you’re doing and dust on top of shelves, window and door frames and curtain rails.

I use the dusting attachment on my vacuum cleaner to do all the hard work. Once all the dust is up, spray with a dusting spray and wipe down.

Wipe clean light fittings and fans

Lights really attract dust, but easily get missed during the weekly clean as they’re hard to reach.

Get on the ladder so you can clean the top of them properly or if easier take them down to give them a thorough wash in soapy water.

Top tip: Wash your lightbulbs too! Give them a wipe with a damp microfibre cloth, because apparently a dirty bulb emits 20 percent less light.

Like lights, fans of all sorts are a magnet for dust, which they can end up recycling around the room.

I have learnt the hard way you really need to do this. Gunged up fans don’t work, they break, it costs you a fortune sorting them out.

Vacuum behind and beneath all furniture

Pull out all the furniture, remove anything from underneath – particularly from under the bed – and vacuum thoroughly.

Vacuum behind and beneath radiators.

A long arm vacuum attachment and long arm brush are a godsend for this.

Vacuum sofas and arm chairs

Pull all the cushions off the sofa and get the vacuum into all those little crevices that are full of dust, crumbs and worse!

Top tip: Put an old stocking over the end of the vacuum so you don’t suck up all those coins, pens, hair clips etc that you always find in the sofa.

Beat the cushions to get the dust out and run the vacuum upholstery brush on your vacuum all over the furniture to get out the mites!

Polish wooden furniture

Clean furniture with a dusting spray and then polish or wax as required.

With a little supervision, children can be quite helpful with this as it doesn’t involve water and they actually enjoy rubbing as hard as they can 🙂

Wash or dry clean curtains and blinds

Curtains are usually a major investment but you can make them last if if you look after them and fend of dust and moths which are their biggest enemies.

Most curtains can be washed on a gentle cold cycle and dried at a low temperature.

If you don’t have a drier, leave this chore for a sunny day when you can get them on the line early.

If you’re not sure the curtains are washable – and can’t face the dry cleaning bills – you can at least freshen them up.

Simple run the upholstery attachment on your vacuum all over them to get dust out, spot clean any marks and get them an air on the line on a sunny day.

If you’ve got fabric blinds, you could also run a lint brush over them.

Flooring

Vacuum and clean carpets

Carpets are obviously a major investment that you want to last as long as possible. Give them a really thorough vacuum first.

Spot clean and if you’ve got access to a carpet cleaner give them a complete wash.